People's Democracy

(Weekly Organ of the Communist Party of
India (Marxist)

Vol. XXXVI

No. 50

December 16, 2012

CPI(M) Conducts
Two Day

Picketings in AP

PEOPLE’S
anger against the burdens being heaped on them in the form
of higher power
tariffs and cut backs in subsidies found resonant expression
during the 48 hour
long picketing of district collectorate offices by CPI(M).
Thousands of people
picketed the collectorate offices right in the morning
office hours on December
10 and 11, leading to closure of the offices for some time.
In few places, the
police resorted to brutal lathicharge, injuring scores of
activists. In
Karimnagar, one activist was seriously injured on the head
while in Nizamabad,
limbs of two activists were broken and they had to be
hospitalised.CPI(M)
central committee member S Veeraiah
also suffered injuries in the police
lathichargein
Nizamabad. In Srikakulam,
senior leader of the Party, Choudhary Tejeswara Rao was
injured in the police
action.

Over
fivethousand
Party activists, including
top state leadership, were arrested by the police in these
two days of
protests. Such massive protests on people’s issues across
the length and
breadth of the state has occurred after a long time. The
state is being
crisscrossed by leaders of TDP, YSRCP and Congress hurling
abuses at each other
and raking up non-issues. The media too has only highlighted
these superficial
controversies rather than the struggles at ground level. The
brutality of
police action in many districts showed the jittery reaction
of the ruling party
at the growing anger of people being channelised into
organised protests.

The
CPI(M) state committee had identified issues such as severe
power cuts, burden
of fuel surcharge adjustment on power consumers, payment of
minimum wages,
contract workers issues, lacunae in construction of
Indiramma houses, pensions,
cuts in subsidies etc and called for two day picketing to
protest against the
state government’s apathy in solving pressing issues facing
the people.
Speaking to media persons before being arrested by the
police in front of Hyderabad
district
collectorate, Party state secretary B V Raghavulu said this
is only the
beginning of the struggles, which would be intensified in
the coming period. He
said the common man is being severely assaulted by both the
central andstate
governments by their policy decisions.
There was scuffle when the police tried to whisk away
Raghavulu even as he was
speaking to mediapersons and Party activists tried to
prevent the arrest. The
activists sat on the main road and blocked the traffic
protesting the police
action.

The
CPI(M) state committee in a statement strongly condemned the
high handed
behaviour of the police in many districts during the
picketing. Using brutal
force on peacefully protesting activists was reprehensible,
it stated. Over
seven activists were injured in the lathicharge in
Karimnagar, including three
whose heads were broken. It warned the government about
intensifying these
protests in the coming period.